[csaa-forum] Cultural studies in Australia

Mon Aug 29 18:59:31 CST 2005

I agree with most of what has been said in response to Simon. The 
major problem for me is his automatic conjunction of 
'abstract/philosophical' and 'political'. There are many cases where 
these look to me more like opposites.

But it seems to me that Simon does perform a service in asking what 
has become of a certain early 1990s formation of Australian cultural 
studies. There was an intensity there which would lead one to expect 
an ongoing 'project'. I think most who were involved in it hoped and 
believed that this is what it would be. But in fact, by the end of 
the 1990s, there was a considerable fragmentation and dissipation of 
the energies of that moment. It is easy to explain things away 
through contingent factors -- people got opportunities overseas etc. 
-- but I'm not sure that accounts cumulatively for the phenomenon. 
Why didn't it hold together better?

There are obvious ways, of course, of seeing this as a microcosm of a 
wider shift in Oz cultural politics. For that reason alone, it should 
be of interest.

I love Mel's line about the difficult of speaking of the present and 
the future 'when we are constantly forced to mime in the shadows cast 
by senior colleagues'. But I think some reckoning with the past may 
actually be important to us ECRs (glad to be able to say I am still 
just one). Perhaps this is a rather 'Murdoch' perspective, but as one 
who has struggled up in the institution which perhaps most closely 
followed the 'boom-dissipation' pattern, I have usually been less 
worried by having to find a place amongst a battle of the titans than 
by the vacuum following their departure. The succession thing is 
something the exec of the CSAA also discussed a number of times when 
Alan McKee was president. It was very noticeable for a period that 
many senior figures had disengaged from the scene.

A bit of turnover and renewal is, of course, a good thing. The loss 
or withdrawal of one leaves spaces for others. But some patterns of 
renewal are better than others. I'm reminded of some cricket 
commentators the other night talking about what happened to the West 
Indies (worrying that something similar might happen to Australia). 
It's all very well having (or being) fresh new talent, but it can be 
a difficult and disheartening road for them if they don't find 
themselves in healthy ecology of mixed experiences and ages. I would 
personally like to hear a little more from the 1991 veterans, not 
less -- at least if not simply in self-justificatory mode.

-- Mg

>I'm glad we've got some much needed clarification from Graeme. I've 
>been reading this thread with some bemusement. I'd thought we got 
>well beyond the monoliths of Politics and Theory. I'm also wondering 
>at what and who gets called Australian and the construction of 
>memory around that conf at Nepean where the CSAA got formed, and 
>which was in fact my first visit to Australia. More amusingly it was 
>where John H and Tony B and Meahgan M all met for the first time - 
>so it wasn't exactly well formed cadres who were battling it out 
>then.
>
>Just to remind Simon, since being in Australia I have published 
>Outside Belongings - pretty queer -, Carnal Appetites - fairly 
>deleuzian, and Blush - affect theory. More importantly, I find the 
>American mode of Theory tiresome perhaps because it does not have to 
>deal with coal face realities of politics rather than Politics in 
>way that Australian CS types have to.
>
>That's my 2 cents worth.
>best,
>Elspeth.
>
>Professor Graeme Turner wrote:
>
>>I wasn't planning to get involved in this; I regard Simon's 
>>dismissive comment about Australian cultural studies as a polemical 
>>move, really, more to do with positioning than analysis. For what 
>>it's worth, it is not an entirely new account and I have never 
>>accepted it as completely convincing -- even during the mid-1990s, 
>>which is when it was first articulated and when there was more 
>>reason to assent to it than now.
>>
>>But, reading Simon's own post has dragged me in. I am afraid I 
>>can't let this personal comment go without responding:
>>'neither of them [Hartley and Turner] (I think they'd agree)are 
>>involved in the more theoretical...critical, politically engaged 
>>strands of the rield'.
>>Que? Makes me wonder, just what I have been doing lately? For the 
>>record, (and I'm sure John Hartley can answer for himself) I most 
>>emphatically (perhaps even indignantly) do not agree. Indeed, I 
>>think the last four or five years have been among my most 
>>critically and politically engaged. Maybe because much of that 
>>engagement has been face to face with politicians, bureaucrats etc 
>>-- in addition to the normal academic channels--it doesn't count. 
>>Maybe Simon just hasn't read any of my published work in recent 
>>years; personally disappointing, but not necessarily surprising. 
>>Whatever the reason, this characterisation of my activities in our 
>>field is simply wrong.
>>Graeme Turner
>>
>>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: Simon During <simond at jhu.edu>
>>Date: Saturday, August 27, 2005 8:30 am
>>Subject: [csaa-forum] Cultural studies in Australia
>>
>>>Hi y'all:
>>>Could I just say that as far as I am concerned it's great to see that quote
>>>from my book serve as the beginning of a discussion about creative
>>>industries and cultural studies etc.. But if anyone wants to get a 
>>>realsense of where it stands on issues like populism,  Hartley, 
>>>creativeindustries, the cultural studies discipline etc they 
>>>probably need to read
>>>the whole thing through. And I don't think people will find it coming from
>>>where they'd anticipate if all they've read is those few sentences 
>>>(whichisn't all it gets to say about cultural studies in Australia 
>>>either?andwhile I am at it let me give a plug here and now for The 
>>>Cultural Studies
>>>Review which obviously belongs to a whole other world than the one 
>>>gesturedat in those remarks.).  By the by: Cultural Studies: a 
>>>critical introduction
>>>was written as a textbook, not an introductory one, with a very strict word
>>>limit and it's a bit unusual in that it doesn't so much try neutrally to
>>>explain stuff to students and readers as to engage them head on.
>>>But maybe I can try to move the discussion forward in a slightly 
>>>differentdirection.  I remember going to the first CSAA meeting, I 
>>>don't recall the
>>>exact year (1991?) but I think it was held at the campus of Western Sydney.
>>>Pretty much everyone who had been involved in getting the field going in
>>>Australia were there, and at its centre was the group of people who had done
>>>most to get it off the ground and who were recognised as having made the
>>>strongest intellectual contributions up to that point: people like 
>>>MeaghanMorris, John Frow, Tony Bennett, Graeme Turner, Stephen 
>>>Muecke, John
>>>Hartley....  And as soon as I recall that event I begin to wonder about what
>>>has happened to all those people and about the kinds of work they do now. Am
>>>I right in saying that, while all are still academically active, only John
>>>and Graeme work today in anything like mainstream cultural studies in
>>>Australia, and neither of them (I think they'd agree) are involved in the
>>>more theoretical (or philisophical), critical, politically engaged 
>>>strandsof the field?  Does that matter?  Is it a sign of anything? 
>>>If so, what's
>>>it a sign of?
>>>Simon
>>>
>>>
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>>>
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>
>
>--
>
>/Elspeth Probyn FAHA/
>
>/Professor of Gender Studies/
>
>/The University of Sydney A 14/
>
>/NSW 2006, Australia/
>
>/Tel: +61 2 9351 7389/
>
>/Fax: +61 2 9352 5336/
>
>/Mobile: 0412 548 762/
>
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-- 

Dr Mark Gibson
School of Media Communication and Culture
Murdoch University
South Street, Murdoch
Western Australia 6150

Editor, Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/10304312.html

Director, Centre for Everyday Life

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